


broken open

by choppyVy



Series: love over loneliness [3]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: 2x12 continuation, Alec feeling guilty, Dot to the rescue, Hurt, M/M, Magic out of control, Magnus trying to keep it together, attempted comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-19
Updated: 2017-06-19
Packaged: 2018-11-15 21:52:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11239986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/choppyVy/pseuds/choppyVy
Summary: 2x12 continuation series: Alec wakes to find Magnus's magic is out of control. Helpless himself, he reaches out to another warlock.





	broken open

It is a pull in his insides that has Alec’s mind stir back into consciousness only four hours later, the city outside the windows still plunged in darkness, not that Alec could tell. As he pries his eyes open his hands immediately fly up to protect them from the bright red glow the entire room is steeped in.   
“Magnus?”   
There is no answer.  
Worry tugging hard within him, Alec forces his eyes to at least try to adjust enough to this unnatural light to be able to let his brain figure out what is going on.  
If Alec did not know Magnus to be a warlock he would have no way of knowing it is his boyfriend’s magic that has gotten out of control. Magnus is still simply lying there, curled up on his side, facing Alec, face perfectly relaxed as the bedroom is alight with red, sparks flying all around them, miniature bolts of lightning flicking in the air here and there, splitting it over and over. A low rumble buzzing in the air.  
Alec has never witnessed a thing like this, but he has read about it, studied in school how to deal with a warlock whose magic is out of control. But since he is not about to drive a seraph blade or an arrow through Magnus’s very core … that advise is “… bloody useless,” Alec mumbles to himself. ‘Why is The Clave always so intent on resolving every conflict ever with violence?’ Alec wonders about that not for the first time in all the years he has served them, ever more so now with what has been done to Magnus.   
‘What did I let them do to you? What have I done to you?’ Alec heaves a deep breath that has a weirdly ashen taste to it he notices only as he begins to cough in response. “Magnus?” he tries quietly at first, intent on not startling his exhausted boyfriend. “Magnus?” a little louder, but nothing happens, so Alec reaches over, the first contact of his with Magnus’s skin has his hand flying back and Alec cry out in pain, sound enough to rip Magnus out of his sleep.  
The wide eyes meeting Alec’s, as Magnus sits up, slightly swaying, holding himself up on his arms, looking like a startled animal about to run, are not the refined gold Alec is used to find there when they are alone together, but an angry molten ocean of red glowing lava.   
Magnus looks around them then, expression full of shock looks down at Alec hand, the palm an angry red, he recognizes the smell of burned flesh. “Alexander? What … what …happened?”  
Alec can hear the dread in Magnus’s voice, letting him know that Magnus really already knows, that this … this is by far not the first time any of this has happened.  
And so before Alec can answer Magnus, who is whispering “Sorry. Sorry. Sorry,” over and over to Alec, has frantically jumped up and left the room. The odd spark still crackling in the air, as the red a moment ago fully filling up the entire room fades back into the darkness of the night.  
Alec gets to his feet, draws a healing rune into his skin before he grabs a shirt out of the closet and scrambling for his phone dials Clary’s number already, before rushing out into the living room, hoping Magnus has not left New York altogether.   
He has the phone pressed tightly against his ear, ringing for a long time before Clary answers as he walks the halls looking for Magnus. Alec usually appreciates the spaciousness of his boyfriend’s place, especially since The Institute does not offer them anything much of a personal space at all, but tonight the ground to cover tears at his nerves already worn far too thin after the events of the previous days.   
“Clary!” He almost shouts down the line as she picks up, mumbling sleepily something Alec’s brain does not have the energy to catch in this moment. “I’m sorry I call at this hour. It’s an emergency. I need Dot’s number.”  
“What is going on?” she asks, less sleepy, more alert.  
“Magnus’s magic is out of control. It’s all I know. Please, Clary. Her number!”  
“I’m so sorry, Alec,” she says as if it is her fault. “Alec hates how everything in her mind always needs to be about her, but he pushes the useless anger aside, as he memorizes the number repeated by Clary twice. He hangs up a second later without so much as a goodbye, dialling the number as he comes to a halt back in the living room. ‘Where are you, Magnus?’  
“Hello?” Alec hears Dot’s friendly voice.   
“Dot! It’s Alec … Lightwood.”  
“Hi, um, … .”  
“It’s Magnus. His magic is out of control after what Valentine …,” Alec swallows hard, “… what … we did to him. Please! Dot, he needs help. I need your help.”  
“I’m on my way.”  
“Thank you,” Alec manages this time before hanging up, reaching for the balcony door’s handle in the next second. It is the only place inside the loft he has not searched yet.  
As he pushes the glass door open he hears a sharp intake of air form somewhere on the other side.   
“Please, Alexander, don’t.”  
But Alec’s eyes are already searching the terrace, no sparks or lightning bolts are crackling.  
Alec’s eyes search without success, until he turns back around to the door he had just walked through and finds his “Magnus!” still in nothing but his black boxer-briefs curled up on himself against the wall of the building, in the furthest corner.   
“Magnus, Sweetheart.” Alec feels an iron fist tighten around his heart in his chest at the so unnatural feeling sight, Magnus shaking violently, as he fights to keep his magic in, unsuccessfully. A dense, red and black smoke, crackling with the same sparks Alec had seen filling their bedroom swirls, violently around his boyfriend’s whole body.   
Magnus’s magic if anything has grown more out of control, Alec knows intuitively, he is after all trained to access situations such as this one, not that that helps him all that much as he stands almost frozen, as he has to helplessly watch the magic swirl around Magnus faster and faster in a deep glowing, angry hot red.   
“Alexander, LEAVE!” Magnus cries through the pain Alec can sense he is in.  
Alec hears the words, sure, but Magnus eyes are screaming the exact opposite.  
“I’m not going to leave you here, all alone, like this,” Alec answers firmly back, expression serious. “I’m not going anywhere.”  
Alec hears the rushing sound of what he knows to be a portal behind him somewhere, hears, “I called in a favour with a friend I was with. You two are lucky …,” her voice cuts off in a gasp and then Dot is standing next to Alec, staring wide-eyed “Oh no, Magnus, what happened?”  
Alec glances over deeply irritated, “What do you mean what happened? A greater demon put Magnus and Valentine in each other’s bodies, and …, I can’t explain right now. Can you please help us? Help him, please!”  
Dot’s eyes are wide, her face ashen as she steps forward, walks over to Magnus, whispers, “Honey, oh I am so sorry. I had no idea it was not you I was helping. I should have known.” With that she takes a deep breath, focuses all the magic she can conjure up right now and runs her hands along Magnus’s temples.   
Alec watches as the angry waves of light surrounding Magnus ebb away, flicker … and finally fade.  
“Thank you,” Alec breathes with great relief as he too steps closer.  
“It is only temporary,” Dot immediately warns. “I don’t know how long we have before,” she has to hold Alec back as he reaches out towards them, one arm outstretched towards Alec, the other around Magnus, steading his limp body.  
“He is unconscious?” Alec asks, alarmed at the sight.  
“I had to knock his magic out completely, that means him with it. Nothing else would have worked as long as we don’t know what exactly is going on.”  
“What …,” Alec grits his teeth, steels himself, then “what is going on is, he was trapped in Valentine’s body and I helped my superiors torture and almost kill him.” His tears are angry ones, full of self-loathing.  
“If you are guilty then I am too, Alec.”  
“What do you mean?”  
“Magnus, well, who I thought was Magnus called me here, said his magic was blocked because of some encounter with a greater demon. He asked me to teach him how to use his magic. That was Valentine. Wasn’t it?”  
“Yes.”   
“Look, Alec, none of that matters right now. Magnus needs us.”  
Alec nods, trying to push closer to Magnus as he attempts to push the useless guilt inside aside.   
But Dot holds him off once more. “You can’t touch him. If his magic rears it might hurt you badly. It instantly recognizes anything none magic and acts out against it. It is our last defence as warlocks, when we lose consciousness in a battle, or get badly enough hurt our magic takes over on its own.”  
Alec just crumbles in a heap on the floor at that.   
“Alec?” Dot asks tentatively.  
The man before her is sobbing, “I hurt him so much. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”  
Dot reaches out to him, squeezes affectionately the calf she can reach. “You want to hold him?”  
Alec sniffs, rubs tears off his face as best he can, then “Of course! But … I thought you said I can’t touch him?”  
“If you give my magic a moment to replenish I can put a protection spell on you, there will be a thin magic barrier between you, but technically you will be able to hold him again.”  
“Please. I mean, yes, please, Dot. I’d …, yes.”  
“Okay,” Dot tries to reassure further as they remain sitting on the floor, Magnus in Dot’s arms, one of Dot’s hands still resting against Alec’s calf.   
Alec tries not to panic in the silence that takes a hold of them, tries to breathe.


End file.
